The last surviving son of one of the oldest Chinese families in San Luis Obispo passed away last week at the age of 100. Howard "Toby" Louis spoke perfect Chinese, American English, and Spanish. He was an infant in his mother's arms when she was murdered.
The Louis family was really part of the Wong family. There were 3 founding families in San Luis Obispo - the Wongs, the Chongs and the Ginns. Back in the mid 1800s 10% of California was Chinese until they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1879. Along with everyone else, the Chinese pioneers discovered that the gold rush was more hype than reality. They quickly adapted by starting up businesses and performed services in the communities where they settled.
Located half-way between San Francisco and Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo (SLO) became a focal point for the Central California Chinese community. A large portion of Chinese pioneers established residence along the California Coast and began the business of gathering, drying, and exporting seafood resources back to China. In the 1870's California's largest export was dried seafood bound for Hong Kong. Other Chinese pioneers began vegetable gardens and became the main purveyors of fresh vegetables in the county. There were stores, laundries, restaurants, and labor-contracting businesses owned and operated by the new pioneers.
In addition to the single men, families such as the Wong, Chong, and Ginn families settled SLO. In 1867 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company began regularly scheduled runs between Hong Kong and San Francisco. Between 1870 and 1883 an average of 12,000 Chinese were arriving in San Francisco each year.
By 1872, a one-block area of SLO was being called "Chinatown" in the papers and on local maps. Wong On (later nicknamed Ah Louis) established a store on that block in SLO in 1874 and in 1875 began taking out newspaper ads advertising his store and labor contracting business. Until recently, his store was still run by his son and sits at the corner of Chorro and Palm Streets. Chinese businessmen like Ah Louis saw the need for a labor force to assist in the construction of public works projects. He also saw the need to assist his fellow countrymen in their passage to the New World. It became common practice for a Chinese pioneer's passage to be sponsored by a businessman such as Ah Louis. This fee would then be repaid by the new immigrant through a labor arrangement with the business. Thus, many of the new pioneers were involved in building California's infrastructure (roads, bridges, mining, railroads, etc.).
For many years, California truly was a land of promise and a place where a hard working pioneer from China could earn a better life. The Chinese population was responsible for California's greatest exports (dried seafood, valued at $0.5 to $5 Million annually) and its greatest imports (rice, tea, and opium valued at $2 to $3 million annually). This prompted the signing of the Burlingame Treaty in 1868, opening up immigration between China and the US. Unfortunately, 1868 was also a year which began a flood of unemployed Caucasian immigrants into California and later, the 1873 US depression forced even more unemployed into the state.
But serious discrimination leveled at California's Chinese community began when the growing unemployed Caucasian population began looking for a scapegoat to blame the 1873 recession on. The Caucasians saw the Chinese Californians as having a "strange" culture, language, and habits. The Caucasians were also jealous that most Chinese Californians were employed. An 1870 editorial in the SLO newspaper stated "We (Republicans) differ from the Democrats in that the less Chinese the better."In 1873, both Republican and Democratic parties adopted resolutions against the Burlingame Treaty of open immigration between China and the US. In 1877 a new political party was established (The Workingman's Party) with but one slogan; "The Chinese must go". Although it only lasted 5 years (till the depression was over), it had a major impact on the politics of Chinese discrimination. That same year saw a major 2-day riot between Chinese and Caucasians in San Francisco's Chinatown. In 1879, during a special statewide election, all but 5 San Luis Obispo County voters opposed continued immigration from China. That same year a San Luis Obispo Chinese man was taken from his home and shot. No one was found guilty of the crime. In 1880, the San Luis Obispo City Council passed a motion to remove the Chinese laundries from the city limits. In 1882 the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act (United State's first immigration law) denied the Chinese the right to US citizenship and cut off all immigration except for merchants, educators, diplomats, and students.
Just a few months before the law took effect, a record 39,579 Chinese immigrated to the US. The Exclusion Act remained in effect until 1943. In 1886, the Caucasian population of Arroyo Grande forced the Chinese out of their town by threatening to hang anyone who didn't board the railroad boxcars and leave the area. In 1888, the Scott Act passed preventing any Chinese who return to China from coming back to the US. The Geary Act, an 1892 outgrowth of the Chinese Exclusion Act, required all Chinese people who were legally in the US to obtain Certificates of Residence. In 1894, SLO's Chinese population began the registration process. In spite of all that the families like the Wongs, Chongs and Ginns managed not only to survive, but also to prosper in the face of such discrimination.
Due to these new laws the Chinese population in California dropped from 10% in the 1870s to about 2.5% today. Few know that the first brick kiln in San Luis Obispo County was established by Ah Louis. Few know about the Chinese creation of California's import and export economy or the many accomplishments, which set the infrastructure foundation for California's later prosperity. Today, San Luis Obispo has a very active Chinese Business Community as well as a strong Asian student's organization on the Cal Poly Campus. Although most of the Chinese community is represented by people who have immigrated to the US after WWII, there are still members of those original Ginn, Wong, and Chong families living and prospering in San Luis Obispo.
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